Search results matching tags 'activities' and 'resources'

Earth Day: Free Resources and Activities

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:22:00 GMT

I was so excited to see so many wonderful free resources on Earth Day that I wanted to make sure to share them with all of you. It seems that Earth Day becomes more and more important to teach about how each and everyone of us can do something to help our earth. Let's start with Scholastic. If you click on the picture below you will find lots of free printables, lesson plans, math and writing activities and so much more. Hope you find something you like.

Next on the list was at Royal Baloo. There are packets for Pre-K through 2nd grade. You do not want to miss these wonderful free packets so click on the picture below to access this website.

How about some wonderful crafts for Earth Day? There are 20 fantastic ones at "No Time For Flash Cards" to check out. Just click below. They really look great.

You can also check out my K-1 Packet called "I Can Help the Earth." It has a wonderful Shared Reading Book, 3 Differentiated Make and Take Books at the Pre-Emergent through 1st grade reading levels, Earth Day Picture/ Word match, Earth Day Picture or Word Sort, Earth Day Word Web and Writing Activities. I hope you will click on the picture below and download the Preview file to see all the activities in the packet and get a free activity.

To go with my Earth Day packet I made an Earth Day Edition of Roll the Die and Read to give students more practice at becoming fluent with the words, phrases and sentences they will see in the Make and Take books. Here are 2 samples. Just click on either picture below to download your free packet.

Hope you find lots of great materials to use with your students on Earth Day and all week long. Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

What activities do you like to do with your students on Earth Day?

Building Readers Through Interactive Reading Strategies

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Building Readers

One of the most important activities you can do with your students is to teach them to become proficient readers.

Reading for pleasure is wonderful, but without guidance from the teacher in learning how to use reading strategies effectively, your students will not show significant gains in reading.

We have worked hard this summer to develop interactive reading strategies that can be used right away in your classroom with your students. Each PowerPoint that we have created will have students get involved in their learning. We involve the students by using the Think-Pair-Share strategy where we have them think about a question that relates to their lives, pair with a partner and then share their responses. This is a great way to involve every student right away in the lesson.

We also provide the students with definitions of key terms when needed, along with information to help fill their background knowledge on each topic.

There is also a teacher read aloud part where the teacher models the strategy being taught, with your choice (the teacher's) of book that you want to use, not one dictated by a curriculum!

Then each lesson ends with student assessment. We "put the strategy into practice" by having the students write about what they learned into a notebook. Having a reading notebook for each student will hold them accountable for what they learn during these lessons, and can be also an excellent resource to use at conferences with parents.

Make sure to click here for our Building Readers PowerPoints!

Free Daily 5 Resources for Intermediate Grades

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 13:00:00 GMT

As another school year approaches, we have been working on updating our 18 FREE Daily 5 Resources and hope you can use them in your intermediate classroom. Just click on the titles below and you will be taken to each FREE individual resource. We began the Daily 5 this past school year and found it to be an amazing way to help our students become proficient readers and writers! Enjoy!

Daily 5 Choice Cards for Pocket Charts
Daily 5 Good Fit Books Powerpoint
Daily 5 Signs for Class Library
Daily 5 I PICK Poster
Daily 5 Introduction Powerpoint
Daily 5 Listen to Reading Fiction Worksheet
Daily 5 Listen to Reading Poster
Daily 5 Listen to Reading Nonfiction Worksheet
Daily 5 Listen to Reading Sign Up Chart
Daily 5 Read to Self Poster
Daily 5 Read to Someone Poster
Daily 5 Read to Someone Reminders Poster
Daily 5 Reading Journal
Daily 5 Reflection Sheet for Students
Daily 5 Student Check In Sheet
Daily 5 Weekly Reflection Log
Daily 5 Word Work Poster
Daily 5 Work on Writing Poster

Please make sure to follow us on TPT.

"The Daily 5 and CAFE are trademark and copy written content of Educational Design, LLC dba The 2 Sisters. Educational Design, LLC dba The 2 Sisters does not authorize or endorse these materials.

Docs Teach

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT

http://docsteach.org/ is a great resource for all teachers. It uses primary resources from the National Archives for ready-to-use tools for teaching with these documents in the classroom. It brings history to life!

Teachers can even create their own activities or find already made activities. In no time at all I created this activity where students have to use their knowledge of the Louisiana Purchase to tell if the United States overpaid or underpaid for the land they bought. http://docsteach.org/activities/11133

There are about 1000 pre-made activities ready to teach, most concerning History classes. To sign-up it is free and a great resource to implement in the classroom, especially in the middle and secondary grades.

Number Loving

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Number Loving is a great math resource from Laura Rees-Hughes and Sharon Derbyshire. It is a very simple and elegant website that is easy to use. It has many topics ranging from algebra, geometry, number sense, and statistics. The resources are phenomenal they range from quizzes, activities, starters, investigations, and review games for all levels across the math curriculum.

I would definitely try to find your next lesson here: http://numberloving.co.uk/resources.php

There is also the Number Loving blog that includes top-notch ideas to spice up math lessons. You can find new approaches and alternative math material or your classroom. Here: http://numberloving.com/

Two Great Sites

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT

As I was searching the other day, I came across two great sites chock full of information from teachers near and far. There are many different games, activities, resources, and technology that comes from the classroom in these two blogs.

The first is http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/ which are teaching ideas for the math classroom. It goes over certain concepts and different uses of technology in the classroom. There are new and different study cards for students to practice.

The second is http://mrbartonmaths.com/ gives teachers, students, and parents tips on software, resources, and reviews of math products. This is a great site.

Teaching Reading Skills Through Current Technology Activities

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:29:00 GMT

It seems now, more than ever, students' attention levels are harder to maintain in the classroom. Almost every day I hear a student talking about a video game, about a text they received, or about a game or app that they have been playing on their hand-held devices. If teachers are to connect with their students, it makes sense to develop activities that uses their students' understanding of current technology to help them learn. Therefore, Wise Guys has developed four activities centered around the most popular uses of technology by students.

iPods
This fun activity includes directions on how students can make an iPod Touch based on the guided reading book, novel unit, independent book, or literature circle book that they are reading in class. It also includes a template of an iPod Touch that the students could use to make their own. This is a great way to assess reading comprehension at the end of the novel.

iPod Touch Reading Activity

Texting
This is a 5-page reading comprehension activity that will work with any reading novel. This activity will have your students send "text" messages to the author, a character in the story, a friend about a favorite part, and a teacher about what he/she liked about the story. I have found this to be a very enjoyable activity that encourages comprehension of the story.

Each of the 7 activities includes a detailed description of what is expected. An example activity is when students are asked to text a character. The directions state: “You will send a short “text” message to one of the characters in the story that you are reading (or have read). You can use some of the text abbreviations from the front page or you can create your own. Your message should contain at least one detail/fact/event from the story that would relate to that specific character. When you are done, you will need to explain your text message. If you think you need more space, then write the message on an index card and then staple it to this page. Be sure in your explanation to include what any abbreviations stand for. Your explanation should be at least three sentences in length.”

Included in the packet is a template cell phone for each activity, along with over 30 text abbreviations for the students to use.

Text Messaging Reading Activity

Facebook
This is a two page activity in which your students will use a social networking activity to tell more about the book they are reading.
This is a fun and engaging way to get your students interested to talk more about literature. Included is a direction sheet and a blank sheet for the student to complete.

Social Networking Reading Activity

Twitter
Get your students interested in the books that they are reading by having them tweet to the teacher! This fun activity has your students tell you the main details about a book they are reading through short tweets to the teacher. Included is: a teacher direction sheet with requirements, tweeting abbreviations, and a place to design a logo. Also included is two pages where the student will tweet the requirements to the teacher.
Watch your students have fun with this activity!

Tweeting to the Teacher Reading Activity

If you are interested to see how we use some of this technology in the classroom see our other blog posts on using Kindle Fires in the classroom.

HUGE Leap Year Day Sale! All of Our Activities, Guides, and Games on Sale!

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:56:00 GMT

Yes, that's right on Wednesday, February 29th, Wise Guys is having a huge sale in our store where you will not only get 10% off from TPT by entering this code: L2P9Y, but an additional 20% off from us!
You will have to wait until Wednesday, but you will be able to access the deals by clicking on the picture below.

Don't miss out on this great opportunity to get high quality activities that you can use in your classroom for super discounted prices. It's a ONE DAY SALE only!

iPods and iPads

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:00:00 GMT

There are many different applications and ways you can get students to learn with apples latest technology. iPods and iPads are a great way to get students engaged in classroom activities. Listed below are places to get activities for both technologies.
http://education.apple.com/ipad-learning/
http://perkinsdesignteam2.wikispaces.com/iPod+App+Challenge+Activity
http://esu17training.wikispaces.com/file/view/Curriculum%20Specific%20Free%20iPod%20Applications.pdf

Sometimes the only ways to use iPad's in the classroom is to write a grant, but most districts now have a cart like for laptops strictly for iPads. Here are some tips and tricks for using them: http://esu17training.wikispaces.com/file/view/iPod%20Touch%20Tips%20and%20Tricks.pdf

To get all these resources and more follow this link here: http://esu17training.wikispaces.com/Learning+with+the+iPod+and+iPad

Google For Educators

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Google for educators is a seperate page, where google supports teachers in their efforts to empower students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. Google for educators has many different resources such as tools for your classroom, classroom activities, classroom posters, and a teacher community.

You can find the link for the site here: http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

Google for Educators also has a teacher academy. The Google Teacher Academy is a free professional development experience designed to help primary and secondary teachers from around the globe get the most from innovative technologies.